Living Without Meat

Current TV, a cable channel that reports on what they think the masses actually want to hear about, will be airing an Earth Day (April 22) from April 19 through 22 and is asking you what you think.

Join the talk about the Earth on Current.com, and your answers may be seen airing this weekend.

Current is looking for your Webcam thoughts about being green and saving the environment. Here are my editorialized (because that’s how I roll: Sally doesn’t do Webcams) answers to Currents seven Earth Day questions:

1) Who needs a green makeover? Who or what organization do you want to see change and why? Soy products that continue to include animal ingredients such as whey protein. Veganism is an amazing way to help our planet, but it feels deceitful and pointless to me to make something that tricks and confuses vegans.

2) What is the most ridiculous excuse you have heard or given for why you aren’t living sustainable? “It’s too expensive” is a pretty pathetic one. How can be expensive to reuse things as much as possible before throwing them away?

3) Tell us the easiest way to save the world. Be conscious of everything that you do, every purchase you make, every food that you eat, etc.

4) Who is your eco hero, and why? Captain Planet, because he wanted to save the planet before all of the celebs were on board. Plus, he didn’t do it for fame or fortune, it was a mission that he felt burning from within.

5) What’s in the way of you making the change you want to make? I want to recycle more than I do but there are no bins near my apartment, and I don’t have a car to drive my recyclables somewhere.

6) When did you “turn”? When did you know that you were an environmentalist? I started to get the feeling when people started calling me a hippie that I might have a few green tendencies.

7) What gives you hope? Seeing a child pick up garbage, get excited over a plant, or act green without being prompted.

There’s a famous vegetarian - my favorite one - on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine for the May issue, which is on stands now. Check it out!

Click on the cover to find out more about the dress that she is wearing.

I fear that, in order to tell you about what had me jumping with glee on the couch this evening, I must first admit that I love watching the least vegetarian-friendly show ever: Top Chef.

I understand that the cooking business calls meat protein, but everytime a Top Chef challenge lays out tables of animal meat and refers to it as “the protein” - never a bean, soy product, or other such protein in sight - the myth that vegetarians cannot get sufficient protein is perpetuated. But still, I watch the cooks battle it out in the kitchen each week.

Two weeks ago, the “Zoo Food” episode brought what I thought would be an inspirational challenge, breaking the vegetarian barrier. Teams of the competing chefs were assigned an animal - bear, gorilla, penguin, vulture, or lion - and had to pay homage to their creature’s natural diet for a zookeepers’ cocktail party. But even though they had a veggie-loving beast, team gorilla added meat. Boo.

Tonight, however, a vegan dish won the quickfire challenge, earning the meal’s creator Dale immunity. It was a vegan take on sushi; it was beautiful. He used shaved cucumbers as a wrap and delicately cut veggies for a filling, and won me - and the judges - over.

So stay tuned for the recipe … and watch Top Chef to cheer on Dale!

To be fair, I just noticed that both Richard and Ryan made vegetarian tacos last week during the quickfire challenge. Richard’s won; Ryan’s were in the bottom. Richard’s are seen here in the first picture; Ryan’s in the second. Click on either picture to go to that taco’s recipes.

It always seems to happen that once you are thinking or aware of something, it pops up everywhere. Whether this is a coincidence of timing or that you are noticing it now because it is on your mind, I can’t say. But vegetarian and vegan references are everywhere!

1. On the front page of today’s free newspaper the Metro, the “Did you know” section read: “Some lipsticks contain fish scales? The substance pearl essence is obtained primarily from herring and is a by-product of large-scale commercial fish processing. It’s used o give some beauty products their shimmer.”

2. I rented the cancelled FOX TV show Kitchen Confidential because it starred Bradley Cooper (yummy!). Turns out, on disc 1 of the first (and only) season, there was an episode about Bradley - who plays a head chef - dating a vegan, or “level five salary killer” as he first calls her.

3. Year of the Dog is Molly Shannon’s quirky new movie that Netflix recommended to me. It is promoted as a “canine-themed comedy” where Shannon’s secretary character’s “life takes a temporary nosedive when her beloved dog, Pencil, suddenly dies.” Apparently, from there she becomes engaged in the animal rights movement. Mom saw it already and says that it is a must watch; that I will relate to it fully!

4. Fashionista is not a vegan Web site, but recently posted a great read called Is Your Makeup Vegan?

5. The Bag Lady told readers about vegan designers Matt & Nat, displaying one of their latest chic purses available at Alternative Outfitters vegan boutique.

How about you? Do you bump into animal and vegetarian references in your life? Do they still catch you off guard? Do they still excite you?

With opening weekend sales of $45.1 million ($10 of which is mine), the latest Dr. Seuss book turned into a movie is a quickly becoming a blockbuster hit!

Horton Hears a Who!, as originally penned by Seuss in 1954, already held several human rights and moral implications - as do many other of his stories. When turning the 70-page book into a screenplay, however, the movie’s writers really took these implications and ran with them.

The movie version of Horton Hears a Who! - featuring the voices of Jim Carrey and Steve Carrell, and taglined “One Elephant One World One Story” - includes touches of human rights, mob mentality, helping one another, a higher power or being, intolerance of differences, and even has an emo/punk kid that is misunderstood by his father.

Of course, there are also plenty of animal rights issues that can be deduced from the story as well, though they are not the main focal point.

If you have a sensitive child, I would recommend screening the movie first or waiting for it to be released as a rental because there is a mean mother kangaroo and a scary vulture. Plus, the issues addressed will undoubtedly bring up a lot of questions that you may want to discuss as the movie runs.

I do highly recommend this movie!

Adults will love it; kids will love it. Men, women, boys, and girls will love it. People who want to think and have important issues brought to mind will love it.

Animal Planet is not always my taste in television programming. I have a hard time watching the predators take down the prey, even though I know that it is a natural process in life. Tonight, however, I watched Awesome Pawsome, and loved it.

Animal Planet describes the show from 2000 that tells a tale of four tiger cubs born on Australia’s Tiger Island:

Follow the first year in the lives of four Bengal tiger cubs as they explore a surprising environment. These cubs are bottle-fed, take baths, meet children and play with the family dog–so interacting with adult tigers may not be such a walk in the park.

Yahoo! sums it up a little better:

Documentary special that chronicles the first year of four Bengal tiger cubs — Sita (shown, second photo), Rama, Taj and Sultan (shown, first photo). Born at Tiger Island at Dreamworld, on Australia’s Gold Coast and raised in captivity to help preserve the species, the program captures the unpredictable moments of their infancy, from birth to feeding, living with their handlers, getting their first bath and even meeting dogs, children and learning to be adult tigers.

The best summary, however, is to say that it is a must-see for all animal lovers!

PETA might hate it for the simple fact that the tigers are living in captivity, but one trainer eases these concerns quite well near the end of the program. He says: of course their ideal home is the wild, and he hopes all those out there survive. But with the species headed downward this scenario needs to happen to save them. Just before a wonderful play scene, he concludes that all he can do is make their life the best that it can be.

I get excited when I see an animal-rights or vegetarian article in a public newspaper or magazine, such as the Wall Street Journal did last week with its headline: The 247 lb. Vegan.

The press is catching on, and the animals are being given a voice!

So imagine my excitement over the past week when all of these articles fell into my e-mail inbox:

* From a delicacy, a delicate situation: Foie gras on Baltimore menus spurs protests made the front page of the Baltimore Sun, Monday, January 28.

* Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler was in the week in review, in the world section, of the January 27 Sunday New York Times.

* Last Sunday, January 20, one of my hometown papers - the Philadelphia Inquirer - featured Learning to eat, and like, his veggies by a regular columnist. A recipe is included for Walnut-Mushroom Pate.

* CNN reported that Chips could put lab rats out of work with an Associate Press-written science article this Monday, January 28.

* Lansing State Journal answered a reader’s concern with Weigh benefits of vegan diet for kids, also on this Monday.

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If you have not yet heard, Marshall “Eminem” Mathers was hospitalized over the holidays in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Gossip columnists have been aflutter with reports of the pneumonia and chest pains that sent him rushing to the hospital.

Stay with me, I can connect this to LWM.

Though he is now safely recovering at home, all reports have felt the need to add that his “weight has ballooned” recently.

I decided to address this for a couple of reasons. First, I have an undying love for the man. But because I named one of my cats Marshall (shown here with his namesake) after him, and have previously introduced my kitty-babies on this site, lots of people are finding my site while searching for things such as: “eminem is fat,” “eminem is dead,” or other similar phrases. For that reason, and because vegetarians are oft linked with weight-related stereotypes, I feel justified in highlighting this gross aspect of humanity.

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Have you been hanging on in utter and total suspense, clinging to the edge of your seats in anticipation of the number one vegetarian/animal-related TV moment in 2007? First, if you have not yet checked out the rest of this top ten list, check out numbers ten down to six and then numbers 5 through 2. Of course my fave TV spot is in those that didn’t quite make the list, but definitely deserve an honorable mention.

Now, for the final installment of this seemingly endless, super drawn out list.

*1.* Coming from the American version of workplace comedy - The Office. It also comes from a hot tip from Lira, who writes Watching The Office.

Not only is worker Angela a vegetarian and cat lover, but the first episode of season 4 focused on this matter. When her beloved pet Sprinkles becomes ill at the same time that a coworker is injured (*cough* run over by Dwight), Angela asks boyfriend Dwight to watch over Sprinkles. Standard Office insanity ensues resulting in hilarious quotes (”There were claw marks in the frozen peas!”), Angela breaking up with Dwight, and vegetarianism and the rights of animals being given a comical platform.

This was not my Project Blog entry, but I am still in the competition! Click Here to vote and check out all the contest-ual goodness!

On Monday we counted down from 10 to 6.

Come Wednesday we kept the ball rolling with numbers 5 through 2.

And today … drum roll … we have a few runners up who deserve honorable mention while we await the announcement of Living Without Meat’s selection for the numero uno, top banana of all vegetarian and animal-friendly moments to grace the TV airways in 2007.

Yes, it is true: I am making you wait at least one more day before I reveal number one on my year-end, Veg-related TV list.

* Kristen Bell - once known as Veronica Mars, former recipient of PETA’s elite status title Sexiest Vegetarian, and object of my heterosexual affection - was cast in lead, recurring role on Heroes. The superstar (in my eyes at least) was such a hot item after V.Mars ended, that she actually had to choose between offers. TV series Lost also lusted after K.Bell. Since her phenomenal episode with Mars Investigation didn’t occur in 2007, I had to find some way to work her into my list, right?

* Bob Barker’s retirement from The Price Is Right seemingly ironically makes this list of almost listers because as he stepped down, his vegetarianism, animal rights work, and constant reminder to “spay and neuter your pets” made headlines across the nation.

* One you may not have noticed, but deserves your attention is Nickelodeon’s Back at the Barnyard, a new, animated, talking animal show that picked up where the movie Barnyard left off. Word is that animal rights issue are never far from the farm.

* Margie reminds us that Lisa Simpson is still a vegetarian. Unfortunately her “coming out” episode wasn’t this year. But Margie had another great runner up as well: Days of Our Lives. “Sami and Lucas had a green wedding … using eggs from free range chickens in their cake and and all sorts of stuff.” Plus, people used to tell me that Sami looks like me.

This was not my Project Blog entry, but I am still in the competition! Click Here to vote and check out all the contest-ual goodness!

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For the first post of 2008 here on Living Without Meat, I bring you the second half of the Top 10 TV References to Vegetarianism and Animal Rights as seen on the tube in 2007.

5. The Next Food Network star had a challenge to cater a wedding for a vegetarian bride and non-veggie groom. What a disaster! One team put chicken stock in the “vegetarian” polenta, and the cake is questionable as it used fondant which usually contains gelatin.

4. Ranking so high because it received so much coverage, is the little animal friends of Kid Nation. To kill or not to kill the chicken was the hot debate (click photo for episode recap) - some cried; some showed signs of evil torture; and others declared that they were only okay with killing the ugly ones, not the cute ones. Worst of all, the producers actually started this whole debate. The journal that the kids were given read: “You brought chickens with you, right? Truth is: they’re good for more than eggs.”

3. From the blogger at Watching Bionic Woman: “There was a GREAT episode of King of the Hill where Hank goes in search of good beef and ends up working for a farmer’s coop where they massage the cows every day, and talk about how the vegetables they buy there actually have taste.”

2. A fellow writer at Watching Pushing Daisies points out the number two moment of the year: “There was a whole episode of Pushing Daisies on dogs in which the murder of the week was actually a disagreement over who gets to keep/protect the “super dog” (cross breed) which a puppy mill was planning to clone and sell for big profit.” My friend over at Limited Edition Foods concurs: “It really was the best … the way the polygamist dog trainer had the four wives whose personalities resembled those of the dogs they trained? It was great stuff!”

And … the number one veggie-friendly moment on TV in 2007 … will be posted tomorrow!

Think you know what it might be? Think I’ve missed a key feature? Leave a comment and let me know!

It’s the end of the year - but I’m fairly sure that you already knew that. You have probably also noticed that writers are enjoying writing year end lists right now. Top 100 …, Best of …, and Year in Review for 2007 have been running rampant throughout every magazine, TV gossip show, and, of course, blog.

I tried, but failed, to resist jumping on the bandwagon. So here it is, on the last day of 2007, I bring you the first half of my review of the best of the top occurrences for the year of 2007.

Vegetarian and Animal Rights References on TV Shows in 2007

10. The Today Show featured a segment about ideas for going vegetarian with your Christmas meal.

9. Several reality-based shows had vegetarian stars/guests/whatever you call those kooks. Many were a bit confused, but still got the veggie perspective in the TV limelight. On MTV’s A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila Amanda, a veg for 10+ years, eats the man parts of a bull. Vegetarians Jennie Garth (photo 1) and Heather Mills both show of that veg heads can have grace and athletic strength on seasons 5 and 4 of Dancing with the Stars. On an episode of dating show Girl Meets Cowboy, a vegetarian woman said this about being taken on a date to brand a cow: “I LOVE animals, but I’m really excited for this experience.” Another contestant broke down crying, and stated that she could not and would not do that to an animal. Lacey (photo 2), from Rock of Love with Bret Michaels, wheres PETA shirts - positive. Negative, though - she gets in drunken, screaming, sloppy fights about animal rights.

8. PETA’s sexiest vegetarian contest stirred up lots of TV spots. Plenty of gossip-type news shows mentioned it (such as Access Hollywood), but the main features included the two winner: Jay Leno campaigned for his musical sidekick Kevin Eubanks on The Tonight Show, and Carrie Underwood was recognized on Country Music Television.

7. Longtime vegan, environmentalist, and activist Ed Begley, Jr. gets his own reality show - Living With Ed - based on his home life with his wife, daughter, and extremely green home life.

6. PETA Founder and President Ingrid Newkirk’s story - I Am an Animal - airs on HBO.

… more to come!

Surely I don’t have to remind you about my love for real-life vegetarian Kristen Bell and the character that made her famous, Veronica Mars. Last night, I was watching episodes from the third and final season of the eponymous girl detective TV show that has, unfortunately, gone the way of the dodo bird. When one began called “Show Me the Monkey” about animal testing where Veronica was working for the college scientists, helping them to find their missing lab rats and monkey (named #25), I thought that I was going to have write Miss Bell a letter of “How could you support this episode” sorts.

But I humbly confess that I jumped to conclusions too soon. The episode was amazing, and if you get the chance I strongly recommend that you check it out (it’s on Season 3: Disc 3, click for a summary).

Watching this hour of semi-reality about lab animals just happened to come the same day that PETA has launched a new campaign for the cause: Mars Candy Kills.

Around Halloween, PETA revealed that they had discovered cruel and unnecessary animal experiments at Mars, Inc. factories, specifically on M&Ms (sadly, once my favorite candy), but also Snickers, Twix, Dove, Three Musketeers, Starburst, Skittles, and more.

Here’s a bit from PETA about the recent enlightenment:

Mars is currently funding a deadly experiment on rats to determine the effects of chocolate ingredients on their blood vessels. Experimenters force-feed the rats by shoving plastic tubes down their throats and then cut open the rats’ legs to expose an artery, which is clamped shut to block blood flow. After the experiment, the animals are killed. Mars has also funded cruel experiments in which mice were fed a candy ingredient and forced to swim in a pool of a water mixed with white paint. The mice had to find a hidden platform to avoid drowning, only to be killed and dissected later on. In yet another experiment supported by Mars, rats were fed cocoa and anesthetized with carbon dioxide so that their blood could be collected by injecting a needle directly into their hearts, which can lead to internal bleeding and other deadly complications.

Click here to find out more about Mars’ cruel experiments.

Mars’ top competitor, Hershey’s, has pledged not to fund or conduct experiments on animals. Other major food corporations—including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Ocean Spray, Welch’s, and POM Wonderful—have also publicly ended animal tests after hearing from PETA.

Click here to read PETA’s letters to Mars CEO Paul Michaels.

Click Here to Tell Mars to Drop Deadly Animal Tests!

Stay educated, informed, enlightened. Be in the know, and you can be as cool as Veronica Mars’s Kristen Bell!

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I’ve got a game for you. There are dozens (well, like three) versions of Macy*s new Christmas commercials featuring Martha Stewart - “The Magic of Macy*s.” But this one, that you can watch here, has a vegan reference in it.

So that’s the game: Can you spot the vegan reference in this Macy*s commercial?

I am ashamed to admit that I enjoy watching Bravo’s reality show Top Chef. If you haven’t seen the competition that pits budding cooks against each other in the manner of every other “Top” this or “Project” that, then the reason that I admit this with a bit of a red face is because every episode is replete with tables full of raw meat. The show often uses exotic animals such as rattlesnake, ostrich, eel, octopus, and alligator. They also refer to meat as protein, which lends to the idea that there is no other viable main source of protein.

The only other food-related television that I ever watch is an occasional episode of The Next Food Network Star, in hopes of the winner being a vegetarian chef (still waiting for this to happen, not holding my breath).

Celebrity chefs just aren’t vegetarians. However, great news for the animal rights movement - the top three British chefs, known as the “three tenors,” are on a campaign to expose cruel practices of industrial chicken farms.

Jamie Oliver (a.k.a. the Naked Chef; first picture), Gordon Ramsay (from FOX’s Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares; second picture), and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (umm…no real fame in U.S., but has written some books; third picture) are the three men in question here. Together they are the British Channel 4’s culinary trio.

Each kitchen master will attack the foul fowl matter in a different way:

Oliver has already discussed with the supermarket chain for which he is the face how they can help improve the “hideous realities.” Additionally, he will be hosting an on-air banquet where he will use shocking demonstrations to detail the truth behind factory-farmed chicken life.

That Hugh guy will attempt to show his audience “what happens to chickens that are sold for less than the price of a pint of beer” by setting up his own farm. His three-part series reportedly (according to The Guardian) ends with him crying over abnormally large birds: “I can’t kill another chicken.”

And the mean, rude, Ramsay that has previously sparked flames with PETA is not really doing anything to help the cause that I (or other writers for that matter) can see. His way of encouraging consumers to make smart choices, and buy organic and free range? Holding a worldwide cook-a-long, attempting to get everyone in the kitchen at the same time.

It’s not vegetarian cooking TV, but it’s a step.

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